Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 6, 1 Iune 2018 — Ethics Commission needs to be challenged [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ethics Commission needs to be challenged

LEO 'ELELE TRUSTEE MESSSAGES

/ A no'ai kakou... As you may • /\ have heard in the meHia

Mrecently, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission has alleged that I inappropriately spent my trustee allowanee. For years, the Commission has threatened elected officials by telling them to pay fines for alleged offenses or they will take them to court or increase their fines. This needs to be challenged and I will demand that the Ethics Commission hold a full hearing about their allegations. ON AN0THER N0TE

This article is not the original one I submitted to be printed. I had to cut major portions of it in order to satisfy our Administration, who argued that my article "could be reasonably seen as seeking privileges, advantages, or treatment for yourself in your dealings with the Ethics Commission." I asked them to point out where in my article I was "seeking privileges" but at the writing of this article I have not received a response. This is the second article in a row that OHA's Administration has used the State Ethics law to stop me from communication with our beneficiaries through OHA's own newspaper. For many of OHA's beneficiaries, such

as out kupuna who aren't familiar with the intemet ourTrustee Columns in the Ka Wai

Ola are the only way that they ean learn what Trustees are currently working on and what is going on internally at OHA. It is a Trustees' right to keep our beneficiaries properly informed. As long as a Trustee does not write anything slanderous or falsely accuse someone or breaks the law, it is protected as Free Speech and should be printed. OHA's Administration should be spending their time working on more important matters than looking for ways to harass me. They definitely should not be looking 3HUU1U ilUL

for ways to restrict a Trustee's ability to communicate with beneficiaries. FINAL N0TE This will be my final eolumn until after the November election since all Trustees who are running for re-elections must suspend their monthly columns while they are campaigning. However, look for my op-eds in the Star-Advertiser and other meelia outlets. Aloha Ke Akua. ■ Interested in Hawaiian issues & OHA ? Please \>isit my website at www.mwenaakana.org for more information, including an archive ofall my past articles, or e-mail me at rowenaa@oha.org.

Rūwena Akana Trustee, At-larye